The darkest episodes from '90s TV shows

[Doobie Doo]

Changing Nature' - Dinosaurs



On the surface, Dinosaurs seems like an average sitcom about a working-class dad named Earl Sinclair, his wife, Frannie, and their three kids. The Sinclairs have a lot in common with the Simpsons, other than the fact that they're prehistoric reptiles created by the Jim Henson Company. Yeah … Dinosaurs was a weird show, but it had a devoted following that kept it on the air for 65 episodes. Dinosaurs did delve into social messages, but always maintained such a fun, uplifting tone that looking back, you almost forget that the show ended with the entire family dying a grisly, cold, heartbreaking death.
In the series finale, "Changing Nature," an ice age kicks off. To add some salt in the wound, it's shown that the worldwide climate catastrophe is Earl's fault — or, well, the fault of Earl's company. Once snowflakes starts falling, you know it's all over. The episode closes with the Sinclair family huddled together during the blizzard, figuring that hey, "Dinosaurs have been on this Earth for 150 million years and, it's not like we're gonna just disappear, right?"
Cue tears, wailing, sobbing. It's a depressing ending, but as the AV Club points out, it's an incredibly effective one: "Changing Nature" has a stirring impact, and absolutely sells its message about the dangers of environmental irresponsibility. Still, it's sad to know that Baby Dinosaur will never go to first grade.


'The Boogieman' - Quantum Leap
When Scott Bakula's Dr. Sam Beckett got trapped leaping through time, it made for one of the most cleverly constructed "feel-good" shows of all time. Seriously, that memorable theme song could make even the hardest person crack a smile. Every episode, Sam jumped into a new person's body, in a different period in the 20th century, in order to "put right what once went wrong." Once the historical catastrophe was averted, he'd leap into a new person, say his famous "Oh boy" catchphrase, and begin the next adventure. Along the way, he was aided by his best friend, Al, a hologram from the future.
Due to its time travel format, Quantum Leap jumped freely between many genres, but it was always family friendly. Well, except for the one haunted house episode which gave all the younger viewers nightmares. According to Popoptiq, the episode was titled "The Boogieman." After leaping into the body of a horror novelist, Sam is surrounded by weird supernatural occurrences and is unable to prevent people from dying all around him. To top off all the B-horror movie madness, it's revealed that Sam's holographic buddy Al has been possessed by the Devil — yes, Satan himself — who then tries to murder Sam. It gets intense, but don't worry. Because it's Quantum Leap, things turn out okay in the end, and the show even throws in a fun Stephen King reference.


'Into that Good Night' - Roseanne

he extinction of the Dinosaurs was probably the most depressing finale ever, but Roseanne's downer ending comes pretty close. The heart of Roseanne was always the working-class relationship between the title character and her husband, as they struggled to pay bills, raise a family, and get by. Until the final season, according to Uproxx, where a surprise lottery win turns the family into millionaires, thereby leading to a bizarre 22-episode run of wealthy celebrity hijinks. That's weird enough, but then, the series finale hits viewers with the biggest plot twist of the series: The whole last season was a novel written by Roseanne, who never won the lottery at all.
Hold on tight because it gets worse. Apparently, Roseanne's new fiction writing habit is her way of coping with the loss of her beloved husband, Dan, who actually died of a heart attack in the previous season. Everything that's happened since Dan's death is just a dream. So in about two minutes, the entire run of show goes from comedy to tragedy.
For what it's worth, the 2018 Roseanne revival shows Dan to still be alive, according to Screen Rant. However, even if this new alternate reality ends a lot more happily for one of TV's most popular couples, the original Roseanne ending was still a heartbreaker.



'Over the Edge' - Batman: The Animated Series


Hey, there's a reason he's called the "Dark" Knight. Though all the kids loved Batman: The Animated Series, what made the show a classic was its courageous exploration of mature themes like trauma, loss, abuse, identity crises, and more. However, the show's most intense episode was "Over the Edge," which shows a horrific implosion in the relationship between Batman and his eternal ally, Commissioner James Gordon. The fallout occurs when Gordon's daughter, Barbara, is killed by the Scarecrow. As she dies in her father's arms — a long, horrible moment that viewers are forced to observe — Gordon blames Batman and swears to destroy everything the Dark Knight stands for.
It's thrilling, but painful to watch. Sure, the Joker's a scary guy, but even his machinations can't compare to the gut-wrenching sight of Jim Gordon raiding the Batcave and blowing up the Batmobile. As written by the AV Club, the episode is eventually revealed to be a dream sequence experienced by Barbara, who is still alive. Nonetheless, mainstream superhero cartoons don't get much darker than this.




'Stevil' - Family Matters

Okay, so nothing turns a wholesome family sitcom into a terrifying creepshow like a good Halloween episode. However, the "Stevil" episode of Family Matters is horrifying enough that Freddy Krueger would probably run away, crying into his claws.
As described by Decider, "Stevil" is the name of a demonically possessed ventriloquist dummy who just happens to look exactly like Urkel, the show's nerdy star character. Now, ventriloquist dummies are already creepy. Just ask the generation of kids who grew up with The Twilight Zone. But this evil Urkel doll is like something crafted in the bowels of Hell. Stevil's Wishmaster-esque voice would be enough to make countless children hide under the bed, and after he comes to life, the dummy proceeds to systematically torture, play with, and murder the entire cast of the show. So yes, for one episode, Family Matters literally turned into a slasher movie.
Sure, sure, it ends up being a dream sequence, and these episodes always get retconned. But hey, try telling that to the traumatized young Urkel fan who will now refuse to wear suspenders, ever again. You can't just shout "dreaming!" after every horrifying episode and have it be fine.

 

[Doobie Doo]

'To Heck and Back' - Rocko's Modern Life
Depictions of demonic figures within children's entertainment used to be a more normal occurrence. Listen, the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment of Fantasia is like Dante Alighieri's Inferno in cartoon form. And Krampus? C'mon. However, times have changed, and by the '90s, children's TV networks wanted to avoid showing things like red monsters holding pitchforks. Despite this, Rocko's Modern Life sneaked one past the censors, simply by calling Hell "Heck."
Hellish imagery aside, "To Heck and Back" is a seriously disturbing episode, which features the character Heffer choking on chicken bones, dying, and then trying to go to Heaven … only to be dragged down to Heck. It seems that Heffer's gluttonous ways have imprisoned him in the dark realm, and he'll now have to spend eternity watching video footage of himself eating insane amounts of food. Sure, Heffer ends up escaping from this fate, but he doesn't appear to learn his lesson, so it seems likely that a return trip to Heck may await him in the future. Maybe he needs a visit from the three ghosts of gluttonous past, present, and future?


'Turning Point' - Spider-Man: The Animated Series
One of the landmark moments in comic book history occurred in Amazing Spider-Man #121, when the Green Goblin threw Peter Parker's girlfriend Gwen Stacy off a bridge, and the webslinger failed to save her. After that comic, superhero stories changed forever. No one was safe, not even a hero's loved ones. Though the '90s Spider-Man cartoon never could have gotten the infamous "neck snap" scene past the censors, writer John Semper captured the spirit of the story in surprisingly gritty detail.
In "Turning Point," the Green Goblin captures Mary Jane Watson — whom Peter marries, in the comics — and throws her off a bridge. While MJ doesn't quite "die," she does disappear into a dark portal and becomes trapped in limbo, presumably for eternity, which might be even worse. An anguished Spider-Man then tries to murder the Green Goblin in cold blood, only for the Goblin to instead get sucked into the same spinning portal. Before Spidey can pursue them (which might not be a great idea), the portal closes. Boom. Archenemy and greatest love, gone forever.
So, just like the comics, Spider-Man fails to save the woman he loves, opening fresh wounds on his prior failure to save Uncle Ben. There's no blood, no bones, no gravestones, but it's seriously dark stuff.


'Consider Me Gone' - Alf

Alf was a weird alien, and his taste for eating cats could be problematic, but otherwise, he was a pretty lovable dude. It's a shame that the U.S. government's "Alien Task Force" was so dedicated to kidnapping Alf and that they so badly wanted to subject him to tortures such as freezing, electrical shock, and dissection, according to Junkee. These horrific machinations prompted the Tanner family to take Alf into the fold and protect him as one of the family. Heartwarming stuff, right?
Wrong. According to Complex, Alf's final episode saw the title character being called up by his fellow aliens, finally allowing him to leave Earth. But unlike E.T., Alf doesn't get to go home. He misses his flight, and the Alien Task Force finally catches up to him, surrounding him with guns. Fade to black.
The ending was supposed to be a cliffhanger, but the show ended there, with viewers forced to imagine the alien they'd come to love being cut open like the grey guy in Alien Autopsy. A follow-up TV movie came out in 1996, but by that point, everyone had mourned for the cat-eating alien for too long. Man, '90s series finales were rough.


'Whacking Day' - The Simpsons
The Simpsons has been on TV so long that they've done almost any storyline imaginable. However, the show's darkest moment didn't occur during one of those Halloween "Treehouse of Horror" segments. Instead, this disturbing little nugget was hidden in an otherwise innocuous episode called "Whacking Day." ("Whacking Day" is for beating snakes to death with sticks, not whatever else you were thinking.)
See, you might've thought Principal Skinner was a mean guy, but it turns out he's also an attempted murderer. When the local Superintendent comes to inspect the school, Skinner decides he has to keep all his more rambunctious students from causing trouble. So he promises them free mountain bikes, guides them under the school, and locks them in Utility Basement B. That'd be bad enough, but Skinner then totally forgets about the boys … for days. Days! Bart escapes, but the rest of the kids spend the week (or longer) in this basement, with no water. Somehow, they survive the ordeal. Skinner gives them real mountain bikes as an apology, but yeah, no dice: After pulling that locked door crap, it's surprising the kids ever listen to him.





'The Darkness and the Light' - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
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Star Trek is known for being a bastion of hope and optimism, and while the '90s series Deep Space Nine mostly stayed true to that vision, it wasn't afraid to test the boundaries. The series takes place near the planet Bajor, which has only recently been freed from decades of tyrannical occupation by the Cardassians, a society of reptilian invaders. Political and religious allegories abounded, and one of the show's prominent heroes was Kira Nerys, a former Bajoran freedom fighter played by Nana Visitor.
… or was she a terrorist? Deep Space Nine was never afraid to challenge moral assumptions. While the Cardassian occupation itself was unquestionably immoral, the episode "The Darkness and the Light" went deeper than most TV programs ever would, by also holding up a mirror to Kira's actions as a rebel, according to Tor. Overall, the show mostly sides with Kira: Her people were being oppressed, and she had to fight, even if it meant spilling Cardassian blood. However, DS9's writers pointedly examine the fact that Kira is so unrepentant, particularly when she's interrogated by a Cardassian who claims he did everything he could to spare Bajoran lives.
No easy answers here, and that's exactly why fans loved DS9.



'Bullets Over Bel-Air' - Fresh Prince of Bel-Air



There are few shows that epitomize the '90s as much as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Everyone who grew up in that decade knows the lyrics of the Fresh Prince theme song by heart, and the series introduced the world to Will Smith, the movie star of all movie stars. Surprisingly, even though Fresh Prince was a sitcom, E! News points out that the series wasn't afraid to explore deeper issues, particularly in the episode "Bullets Over Bel-Air."
Basically, what happens here is that Will and Carlton are held up at gunpoint, and Will takes a bullet to save Carlton's life. Will doesn't die, but he does get hospitalized. Later on, Carlton visits Will at his hospital bed, and Carlton tells Will that he bought a gun to protect them if it ever happens again. Rather than being impressed, Will is furious, and he demands that Carlton leave the gun behind. Carlton stomps off but does as Will asks. The scene ends with Will choking up as he empties the bullets from the chamber.
The whole sequence is as emotional as a TV program can get. While Fresh Prince went back to being funny after that, these darker moments are some of the big ones fans remember today.



'The Opera' - Seinfeld

Most sitcoms have their dramatic "family hug" moments, but Seinfeld avoided them like the plague. From start to finish, Seinfeld was snarky and witty, and treated every situation like a joke, even when characters died from licking toxic envelopes. However, in one episode from 1992 the show got a little too real for comfort.
"The Opera" is all about the character of Crazy Joe Davola, who'd seem more at home in Silence of the Lambs than Monk's Cafe. The insanity starts when Crazy Joe phones up Jerry, leaving a message where he threatens to "put the kibosh on" him. Soon, we find out that Crazy Joe has also been stalking Elaine, plastering countless photographs of her face across his apartment walls a la Kilgrave in Jessica Jones. From there, he spends the rest of the episode acting like a genuine serial killer, finally disguising himself in a clown costume and scaring Kramer. The laugh track only makes the whole thing even more disturbing.
The worst part? At the end of the episode, Crazy Joe is still at large. Spin-off potential? Yeah, maybe for a horror movie.


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